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Scott Coker talks to Fanhouse about their alliance with DREAM, potentially bringing Strikeforce to Japan and when Fedor might return.

Strikeforce held an open workout and press conference yesterday at Legends gym in Hollywood, California for their upcoming Strikeforce “Nashville” event. Here’s highlights, video interviews and pictures courtesy of Strikeforce, Showtime, Sherdog and FIGHT! Magazine.

Ugh, just when I thought the Jose Canseco story had finally gone away, Scott Coker has to go and drop this quote to MMA Junkie.

“I can tell you this: If Cesar Gracie says to me, ‘Jose’s training with me, I’m going to get him ready, and I’m going to do it in four or five months,’ and Cesar’s telling me this? That will have a lot of weight on what we decide.”

Coker did add that he doesn’t have any intention of signing of Canseco, but still that doesn’t exactly sound like the same guy who previously said he had no interest whatsoever in Canseco. Basically, the door’s slightly cracked, not completely shut, locked and boarded up.

I don’t know, if Canseco seriously trained for 4-5 months, I guess I’d have less of a problem with it, but I’m having a hard time getting past his motivation for doing it in the first place. The difference between him and Herschel Walker is Herschel donated his purse to charity, and there’s no indication Canseco would do the same. I mean we are talking about the same guy who will literally hang out with you for a day if you pay him $1,000. I usually try to keep an open mind about some of the random stuff this sport produces, but Canseco just leaves a bad taste in my mouth I can’t seem to wash out.

M-1’s Vadim Finkelchtein has confirmed there are “contract issues” with Strikeforce in regards to Fedor, however it sounds like everything is going to get worked out. From an interview with MMANews.su translated by TMR from the UG.

On this week’s edition of ESPN MMA Live, Jon Anik and crew preview WEC 47. Also, Scott Coker calls in to talk about the recent Strikeforce announcement. He addresses the Fedor rumors, but doesn’t really clarify what’s going on behind-the-scenes with M-1. As he put it, they’re merely working through a few last minute details and hope to have Fedor back in the cage in the second quarter or at least sometime in the summer. Coker also confirmed the reported Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers and Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio Silva fights are set for May 15 in St. Louis. He says Overeem will fight twice more before the end of the year for Strikeforce, but didn’t say whether the Rogers fight will be for the heavyweight title.

Strikeforce is definitely keeping Herschel Walker around, but thankfully, not to fight Jose Canseco.

“That’s not going to happen,” Coker said. “I know he wants to fight and he trained with Cesar Gracie, but I don’t think he’s training with Cesar anymore.”

Nice, what did that last all of a week? Anyhow, if Canseco was eying Strikeforce as an opportunity to raise funds to help pay off his $320,000 tax debt, it looks like he’ll need to look elsewhere.

Coker also noted that he’s not interested in signing any UFC cast-offs, specifically Mark Coleman and Frank Trigg. They’ll have to look elsewhere too, though for very different reasons than Canseco.

Image via Sherdog

Scott Coker talks to FIGHT! Magazine about Strikeforce’s partnerships and progress over the past couple years, and how he views competition.

Looks like we finally have our answer on Jay Hieron’s promised title shot. According to Scott Coker, before they knew Nick Diaz would be fighting on the Strikeforce “Miami” card, they offered Hieron the fight against Marius Zaromskis, but Hieron’s agent, Ken Pavia, turned it down. With their DREAM alliance, they had to put Zaromskis in a title fight since he’s the DREAM welterweight champion, so ultimately Hieron was the odd man out when he turned the Zaromskis fight down and ended up with Joe Riggs instead. If he beats Riggs he’s supposed to get the Diaz-Zaromskis winner.